The following is a sermon written and published by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò for the Solemnity of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

IN SANGUINE TUO

Homily on the external Solemnity
of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Redemisti nos, Domine, in sanguine tuo,
ex omni tribu, et lingua, et populo, et natione:
et fecisti nos Deo nostro regnum.

Rev 5:9-10

Dear brothers and sisters,

First of all, allow me to share with you my serenity of mind in facing this trial. I experienced the same inner peace when, a few years ago, I rediscovered the Traditional Mass, which since then I have never stopped celebrating exclusively and which has brought me back to the beating heart of our holy Religion, to understand that being united to Christ the Priest in the offering to the eternal Father must necessarily be translated into the mystical immolation of oneself on the model of Christ the Victim, in restoring the divine order in which Charity consumes us with love for God and neighbor, and shows us how incomprehensible – as well as unacceptable – it is to modify anything of this perfect order that the Holy Church anticipates on earth precisely by placing the Cross at the center of everything. Stat Crux dumvolvitur orbis.

For sixty years, however, along with the world, volvitur et ecclesia. The ecclesial body has also lost its point of stability: yesterday, in the mad attempt to adapt to the world by softening its doctrine; today, in the deliberate desire to erase the Cross, a sign of contradiction, in order to please the Prince of this world. And in a world hostile to the Cross of Christ, it is not possible to preach Christ, and Christ crucified, because this is "divisive" for a "human brotherhood" from which the fatherhood of God is excluded. It is not surprising, therefore, that those who proclaim the Gospel without adaptations are considered enemies. Christians of all ages, and among them the Pastors in the first place, have always been opposed and fought and killed precisely because of the incompatibility between the Civitas Dei and the civitas Diaboli. The Lord taught us: "If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also; if they have kept my word, they will also keep yours" (Jn 15:20).